Artist Study: Gilbert Stuart
Class Contributor: Jenn Stec, Overstone Cooperative School, Lexington, KY
Artist
Gilbert Stuart
Birth: 1755, Saunderstown, Rhode Island Community, Colonial America
Death: 1828, Boston, Massachusetts
Period of Art: Colonial, also known as "Early National"
Contemporaries/Events on the timeline: American Revolution, Benjamin West, George Washington, John Adams, War of 1812
Online Biographies
Biography at Gilbert Stuart Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art Biography
A colorful video on the life of Gilbert Stuart (please preview, probably for older children only)
Video Tour of the Gilbert Stuart Birthplace and Museum
Biography at the National Gallery of Art
How to do a Picture Study in a Home or Group Setting
Artist
Gilbert Stuart
Birth: 1755, Saunderstown, Rhode Island Community, Colonial America
Death: 1828, Boston, Massachusetts
Period of Art: Colonial, also known as "Early National"
Contemporaries/Events on the timeline: American Revolution, Benjamin West, George Washington, John Adams, War of 1812
Online Biographies
Biography at Gilbert Stuart Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art Biography
A colorful video on the life of Gilbert Stuart (please preview, probably for older children only)
Video Tour of the Gilbert Stuart Birthplace and Museum
Biography at the National Gallery of Art
How to do a Picture Study in a Home or Group Setting
Class Description
From the MMA bio above: "In the early years of the American republic, Gilbert Stuart rose to prominence; after a twenty-year career in England and Ireland, he returned home to paint President Washington, a project that brought him international fame. Neither well-born nor formally educated, Stuart possessed enormous natural talent and adapted his style to suit his subjects. He was witty, gregarious, a bon vivant, and devoted himself to revelations of human character." Gilbert Stuart was a student of Benjamin West. See more about West's students here.
Gilbert Stuart is an excellent artist to schedule sometime after you have studied the American Revolution and/or the artist Benjamin West, who was Stuart's teacher and considered the "Father of American Painting." Be sure to utilize the living books included in West's study, as Stuart, to my knowledge, has no living book biographies, and your students would still get an excellent introduction to pre and post Revolutionary painting technology and techniques through the books written about West's life.
If you live close to the Washington DC area, there is a room at the National Gallery of Art featuring the work of Gilbert Stuart. Of course you can see his work every day on the U.S. quarter and dollar (the Athenaeum portrait).
From the MMA bio above: "In the early years of the American republic, Gilbert Stuart rose to prominence; after a twenty-year career in England and Ireland, he returned home to paint President Washington, a project that brought him international fame. Neither well-born nor formally educated, Stuart possessed enormous natural talent and adapted his style to suit his subjects. He was witty, gregarious, a bon vivant, and devoted himself to revelations of human character." Gilbert Stuart was a student of Benjamin West. See more about West's students here.
Gilbert Stuart is an excellent artist to schedule sometime after you have studied the American Revolution and/or the artist Benjamin West, who was Stuart's teacher and considered the "Father of American Painting." Be sure to utilize the living books included in West's study, as Stuart, to my knowledge, has no living book biographies, and your students would still get an excellent introduction to pre and post Revolutionary painting technology and techniques through the books written about West's life.
If you live close to the Washington DC area, there is a room at the National Gallery of Art featuring the work of Gilbert Stuart. Of course you can see his work every day on the U.S. quarter and dollar (the Athenaeum portrait).
- Athenaeum Portrait of George Washington, description of this painting
- Portrait of George Washington, 1821 (on view at the NGA)
- Benjamin West, c. 1785
- Landsdowne Portrait of George Washington, 1796
- The Skater (Portrait of William Grant), 1782 (on view at the NGA, links to picture and its history)
- Catherine Brass Yates (Mrs. Richard Yates), 1793-1794 (on view at the NGA, links to picture and its history)
- Abigail Smith Adams (Mrs. John Adams), 1800/1815 (on view at the NGA)
- John Adams, 1800/1815 (on view at the NGA)
- Thomas Jefferson, 1821 (on view at the NGA)